x5 E53 V8 4.4 oil on plugs and in/along plug-coil gallery

[g300d]

^yeah, that looks hot!

When I had my indy pull the covers for the gasket replacement, I decided at the last minute to paint these as they were peeling pretty bad. Can live with the color but the falling chunks hell no!

So, brought them home that evening, got them as clean as I could with a scouring pad and dishwashing detergent, then sprayed them with VHT header paint. I had read these covers were magnesium or some such alloy that liked to hold oil and need to be heated to get it all out, but didnt have time for all that as I had to get the covers back to my indy tom to get her back together.

So far it's ok, looks like a natural finish cover, porosities and all, as I did real thin coats to also minimize it peeling off. Wish I had more time to work with it to make it look as good as yours.

[Rantanplan]

Thanks as well Steve to your great input.

I have tremendous admiration for all you mechs and engineers in this field, I fly Airbuses and I thought it was pretty tricky and difficult landing on a dark stormy night in and out of Queenstown NZ (The Aspen of NZ).. but jeesh opening up the hood of my X5 always reminds of a Dallas Oil refinery gawd :l

Very funny comment about becoming an expert at doing rocker-cover seals when buying el-cheapo Ebay gear, like that one.

what an awesome blue V8, yep water cooled alternators, I've changed many in my lifetime for mates ( girlfriends ) on the Celicas' Corrolas' and Ford Falcons... yet my first nightmare experience with my X% was when I was given it to me as a present for my birthday from my X, very kind of her mind you, she did warn me there "may be some mechanical repairs" needed... had no idea my X5 was to become the Prince of Darkness like an albatross around my neck, cause within 5 minutes of graciously accepting it, the RED alternator came on... I thought ok no big deal, drove it home lifted the hood, to take altnerator off to get it reconditioned to find it is a water cooled one "what the heck??" I needed to get to work the next day and I had no choice BUT to go to an offshoot BMW specialist repairshop and Aust$2,100 later I picked up the X5 and then took a ride in an ambulance to get over the shock !!!!!!!

then within the month, the rear air suspension bellow blew with a window regulator going... another $2,500 later !!! So that's when I decided enough is enough and get on the DIY bandwagon and get stuck into it.

Thanks to Mr youTube and dare I say to avoid your wrath 'EBay' when my driver's door handle failed to work and withing the week the same door handle lock failed to manually open the X5, I went and fixed both which now has my tail up to get stuck into the rocker-covers.

With all your good heads-up gentlemen I will now give it a crack

Awesome respray/paint cover G300

Warm regards from sunny Melbourne Oz

Mike

[TiAgX5]

I would recommend getting a Bentley manual if you are planning on DIYing going forward.

Good to see someone else on here involved in aerospace. I've been involved on the manufacturing engineering level (specializing in root cause/corrective action) for around 30yrs. Boeing (747 & 787), Lockheed (F16, F22 & F35), N Grumman (E2-C & F15), EDO (towed array sonar (marine), MK-105 minesweeper (marine). Retrofitting updated avionics & weapons systems to older aircraft in field (overseas) is also major headaches.

Defining and correcting BMW issues is like therapy to me.

[Rantanplan]

hehehe like that Tiag,

Yeah, the flight deck of the Airbuses are actually designed by BMW from 1988 when the first 320 came into production and as they say 'the rest is history'... my fav Airbus to fly is the one pictured the A321, such a beautiful majestic airliner to fly you can never screw up the landing, such an elegant smooth lady of the sky.

Very Quickly Tiag, SteveVA , G330 ... if I may....

So thanks to you blokes, I'm about to launch into it!!!!! To confirm what you are all suggesting is to replace parts 2, 6, 8 and more than likely the problem child is parts 2 and 6 the "outter' is causing leak to come ''out of" the engine and outside all over the engine.. whereas the inner of these parts seal is allowing oil to enter the plug/coil gallery please?

I'd shout you all some good Australian Bundaberg rum to say thanks for the time and effort you are putting in to help me with dealing with my X5 oil leak issue, a big thanks guys

Mike

This is one of our Airbus A320s arriving/landing into Queenstown during the day in winter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mxmFCw-Dig

[g300d]

And here I am giving advice among rocket surgeons lol!

Mike, that is pretty cool, thanks for sharing that. I love the story about how you got into the X5 game. I'm sure after the first few repairs you probably got to thinking there were more sinister reasons you were gifted the X lol!

Oh, and I hope the avionics BMW designed are more reliable than the cars!

TiAg, that's an interesting career you have as well! I bet you have lots of interesting stories. I'd love to hear them sometime, especially those about the fast movers!

Back to the work at hand...

You need 2,6,11,13 and 15. You can do 8 if you want, but it's more of a dust/water seal for the elements, not for the oil. I skipped that.

Yes, for 2 and 6 the big gasket is letting oil out of the side of the engine and the small gasket is letting it spill into the plug/coil galley. You will need to replace the other seal rings 11,13, and 15 or you will have oil coming out from those holes too.

I am not sure if there is a tightening sequence because I cheated and had my indy do this for me. Hopefully TiAg, Stephen or the others can chime in with that and the torque values too.

Good luck with that Mike, and cheers!

Glenn

[TiAgX5]

It's all good g300d.

Here's the Viton full gasket set from ECS Tuning....

https://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E53-X5...ver/ES2713032/

The torque spec is 7 ft/lbs, use an in/lb wrench set to 84 in/lbs.

For "non-stressed" items like these, I under-torque by around 25%/30% (60 in/lbs). If it should leak in the future, I torque to full spec (been almost 3 yrs without leaking).